Free expression advocates have voiced concern over the dangers of community censorship following a protest against the filming of Brick Lane , and the campaign leading up to it. Organizations, including English PEN and Index on Censorship, worry this will have a direct impact on the arts, and damage efforts towards the building of a truly pluralist society. Index on Censorship´s Natasha Schmidt reports

On 30 July, a small number of protesters gathered in the east London street, home to a large community of the city´s Bangladeshi community, to express their opposition to plans to feature the street in the film version of Monica Ali´s novel.
     The protests have been seen by PEN as a sign that Britain has become ‘a no-man´s land of censorship, where writers´ freedoms are in the hands of unelected and unaccountable´ individuals. The organisation warned of the dangers of self-appointed leaders unduly influencing community decisions, particularly if these decisions impact on larger civil rights and result in self-censorship. ´Community censorship unopposed by the state is effectively state censorship by proxy,´ its press release of 31 July states.

´Increasingly hostile climate´ for writers
Where does this leave British writers? There are calls for the government to openly and publicly support writers, and PEN is particularly concerned that this ‘official complicity with local attempts at silencing’ writers, artists and filmmakers writers has created an ‘increasingly hostile climate’ for them. Free expression advocates worry this will have a direct impact on the arts, and damages efforts towards the building of a truly pluralist society.
     The Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 now includes a firm commitment to the right to freedom of expression, whether for religious or artistic purposes, following a rigorous campaign by PEN and other free expression campaigners. In the current debate, the government has so far remained silent.
     We have been here before. Calls for censorship have dotted the British landscape over the last eighteen months: the closure of Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti´s play Behzti; the attack on Gary Mitchell by the UDA for his depiction of ´community´; the outrage over the television broadcast of Jerry Springer: the Opera.
     The campaign against the filming of Brick Lane in the part of London in which the story is set resulted in Ruby Films and Film Four seeking alternative sites for the filming. But the Campaign Against Monica Ali´s Film Brick Lane has said that it plans to prevent the filming wherever it re-locates.

Double standards
Much of the row originally focused on Ali´s depiction of Sylheti Bangladeshis. But, as English PEN Director Jonathan Heawood points out, Ali´s book ´offers a portrayal of this community that, whilst partial, is deeply sympathetic and enlivening´.  Many reports on the debate have raised the point that there are many in the Sylheti and wider Bangladeshi community who support the film’s production. Sunny Hurdal, editor of Asians in the Media and the blog Pickled Politics, was quick to encourage the media not to ‘assume ethnic minorities prefer censorship’, and highlighted the double standards attached to demands for ‘authenticity’ with regard to writing by and about ethnic communities in Britain as opposed to writing by or about ‘white’ Britain.
     Henderson Mullin, Managing Director of Index on Censorship, said: ´It’s ludicrous to think that there can be one voice, one opinion for an entire community. To insist on such a line is simple censorship of everyone else’s point of view. I suppose a documentary called “The Real Brick Lane” can’t be too far away.´

The campaign has also re-ignited hostilities between writers Germaine Greer and Salman Rushdie, who sits on the board of English PEN.

It was reported that about 100 people joined Sunday’s demonstration. This is in stark contrast with the number of indidividuals who showed up to casting auditions near Brick Lane a few months ago, said to be near a 1000.

English PEN press release

Asians in Media